Mar. 22 Column: Grow Cabbage Family Crops

Cabbage Family CropsFor this week’s column, I wrote about how to grow cabbage family crops. This includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, radishes and rutabagas, just for starters. Here is link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Netting helps keep pests away from cabbage family crops.

My current favorite to grow is broccoli. I mean, you just can’t beat the flavor of freshly-harvested, homegrown broccoli. Add a squeeze of lemon and a bit of butter and oh yes! That is good stuff. For the past two years, I’ve grown ‘Early Dividend’ (pictured above left) and highly recommend it. This year, I’m trying a new-to-me cultivar called ‘Millennium’. While I hate to mess with success, I always feel compelled to try new things.

One of the frustrations with growing cabbage family crops is that they truly are bug magnets. Have you ever steamed broccoli and ended up with a worm or two in the saucepan or on your dinner plate? I mean, EWWW. 

Aphids think cabbage family crops are pretty tasty, too. Well, I’m here to tell you that you can easily prevent both of these insects from causing problems and you don’t even need to kill them. That makes me very happy.

You can read all about this in my column by going to the above link. For this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video, I demonstrate the simple techniques for keeping cabbage worms and aphids off your crops. Have a look: